An Abbotsford man who was charged with killing Red Scorpion gang leader Matt Campbell in January 2014 is free.
A second-degree murder charge laid a year ago against Jimi Sandhu was stayed by Crown prosecutors on Jan. 29.
Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie explained Monday that there was a change in the evidence available to prosecutors that led to the decision to stay the charge.
“Since the time that charges were approved in the case there ... Read More …

A colourful former wrestler, biker and bit actor convicted of conspiring to kill the notorious Bacon brothers has been denied parole.
Ion Kroitoru, aka Johnny K-9, appeared before the Parole Board of Canada earlier this month in a bid to gain his release a year and a half after he pleaded guilty in the high-profile murder conspiracy case.
In July 2013, Kroitoru agreed he was part of the deadly plot by the United Nations gang ... Read More …

Surrey Six killers Matthew Johnston and Cody Haevischer have appealed their convictions on six counts of first-degree murder and one of conspiracy.
Criminal Justice branch spokesman Neil MacKenzie confirmed Friday that both Red Scorpions filed the appeal paperwork on Thursday.
Both gangsters were convicted by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge in October of the gangland slaughter of six men – including two uninvolved bystanders – at a Surrey high-rise on Oct. 19, 2007.
Both ... Read More …

The gangland murder conspiracy that led to the Surrey Six slaughter was “so dangerous, so callous and so fraught with risk that it in fact resulted in six deaths rather than one,” a B.C. Supreme Court judge said Friday.
Justice Catherine Wedge said killers Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston both willingly accepted their roles in the deadly plot that “exploded into a horrific display of wanton violence in which six people died.”
She handed each ... Read More …

More explosive allegations of sexual misconduct by four cops who worked on the Surrey Six murder case were revealed in B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday.
Three of the former Mounties – Derek Brassington, Danny Michaud and Paul Johnston – are alleged to have had sexual contact with one potential witness during the investigation, defence lawyer Dagmar Dlab said.
And a fourth cop – Dave Attew – is alleged to have had sex with a different potential ... Read More …

Convicted killer Cody Haevischer thought he was going mad when he was held in almost total isolation for more than a year after his arrest in the Surrey Six slayings, his lawyer said Wednesday.
For part of that time, he was surrounded by mentally ill inmates who would eat their feces, cry out all night long and scratch on the wall bordering his cell, lawyer Dagmar Dlab told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge.
Haevischer’s ... Read More …

A convicted killer and United Nations gang member is suing the federal government for a jailhouse beating he says was plotted by rival gangster Jamie Bacon.
Michael Newman, who shot and stabbed a Vancouver lawyer during a 2004 robbery, filed the suit in the Federal Court of Canada Oct. 17.
In his statement of claim, Newman alleges the staff at Kent Institution failed to protect him from Bacon and his Red Scorpion gangsters in 2011 ... Read More …

Cody Haevischer and Matt Johnston have now been found guilty of six counts of first-degree murder and one of conspiracy, but their sentencing could be a way off.
After the dramatic verdict in B.C. Supreme Court Oct. 2, lawyers for the killers were back court today, laying out their post-verdict plan to attack the police conduct in the investigation.
They are looking for access to material filed by Jamie Bacon, also accused in the Surrey ... Read More …

Applause rang out in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday as two Red Scorpion gangsters were convicted of six counts of first-degree murder and one of conspiracy in B.C.’s worst gangland massacre – the 2007 Surrey Six slayings.
Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston showed little emotion as Justice Catherine Wedge concluded a summary of her reasons, saying the evidence against them proved their involvement in the executions of rival drug dealer Corey Lal, his brother Michael, associates ... Read More …

Like no other gangland slaying before it, the Surrey Six massacre drove home the danger of the gang life in B.C., both to those in the thick of it and the innocents around them.
But the six victims of the slaughter on Oct. 19, 2007 were not the only ones related to the investigation to die prematurely.
At least seven others mentioned in evidence during the trial of accused killers Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston ... Read More …

That terrible day seven years ago began when Eileen Mohan received a call from her office at 7 a.m. saying she was needed at work.
She had planned to take Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 off so she could be home when a gas fitter came to service the fireplace in the penthouse apartment she shared with her husband Sunil and son Christopher, 22.
They had lived on the top floor of Surrey’s Balmoral Tower ... Read More …

It’s just a month to go before the families of the six men shot to death on Oct. 19, 2007 finally get to hear the verdict in the case.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge will deliver her reasons for judgment on Oct. 2 at the Vancouver Law Courts.
Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston are facing six counts of first-degree murder and one 0f conspiracy to kill Corey Lal.
The Crown argued that the Red ... Read More …

After almost four years on the run, a purported hit man for Metro Vancouver’s United Nations gang has been arrested in Mexico, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
Cory Vallee, 37, was picked up Wednesday in Guadalajara, a city of 1.5 million in Jalisco state, according to sources. He was found with fake identification, but Mexican authorities worked with the RCMP to confirm his identity.
He has been returned to B.C. to face two first-degree murder ... Read More …

B.C.’s anti-gang police say it’s no surprise that one of the province’s most notorious gangs has set up shop in Alberta.
Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said just like other organized crime groups in B.C., the Red Scorpions have expanded to other parts of Canada.
Houghton was reacting to news that B.C. Red Scorpion Cory James Lesperance, 29, is facing 14 charges in Red Deer for firearms and drug trafficking ... Read More …

KIM BOLAN
Vancouver Sun
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge says she’ll deliver her verdict against accused Surrey Six killers Cody Haevischer and Matt Johnston on Oct. 2.
Wedge addressed the court briefly Monday after Crown Mark Levitz finished his reply to the closing arguments of defence lawyers made last week in the high-profile murder trial.
“This has been a very long and complex trial. It has been very difficult at many levels. In that ... Read More …

Accused Surrey Six killer Jamie Bacon is facing three new charges for an alleged plot to kill a former Red Scorpion gang mate known only as Person X.
Bacon, who is yet to go to trial in the 2007 gangland murder case, made a first appearance on the new charges before B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen at the Vancouver Law Courts Monday.
The indictment alleges Bacon “unlawfully did counsel” another man named ... Read More …

Admissions to fellow Red Scorpions, video surveillance, cell phone records and forensic evidence all prove that gangsters Cody Haevischer and Matt Johnston are guilty of the 2007 Surrey Six murders, Crown prosecutor Mark Levitz said Friday.
Levitz concluded his closing arguments in the high-profile murder case by stressing again that the evidence against the accused on six counts of first-degree murder and one of conspiracy is overwhelming.
“In the Crown’s respectful submission, we have proved ... Read More …

Surrey Six prosecutor Mark Levitz said the grisly crime scene inside suite 1505 in the Balmoral Tower proves the killers fled almost immediately after they shot six men execution-style about 2:45 p.m. on Oct. 19, 2007.
Levitz warned family members of the victims that he was going to describe the horrific crime scene where the bodies of Corey Lal, his brother Michael, Eddie Narong, Ryan Bartolomeo, Ed Schellenberg and Chris Mohan were discovered.
On the ... Read More …

A key witness in the Surrey Six trial was not motivated by revenge or money but by the desire to help victims’ families get justice, a Crown prosecutor argued Thursday.
Mark Levitz said a former Red Scorpion who can only be identified as Person Y may have been hostile to gang leader Jamie Bacon, but that doesn’t mean he lied at the trial of accused killers Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston.
Levitz said Y willingly ... Read More …